1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to data replication environments, and more particularly to systems and methods for managing storage functions in data replication environments.
2. Background of the Invention
In data replication environments such as Peer-to-Peer-Remote-Copy (“PPRC”) or Extended-Remote-Copy (“XRC”) environments, data is mirrored from a primary storage device to a secondary storage device to maintain two consistent copies of the data. The primary and secondary storage devices may be located at different sites, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of miles away from one another. In the event the primary storage device fails, I/O may be redirected to the secondary storage device, thereby enabling continuous operations. When the primary storage device is repaired, I/O may resume to the primary storage device.
When managing storage at a primary site, care needs to be taken to ensure that any operations (i.e., storage functions) initiated at the primary site can be successfully mirrored to the secondary site. For example, when a target volume is allocated at the primary site to receive a point-in-time copy (using the FlashCopy function, for example), care needs to be taken to ensure that a corresponding target volume at the secondary site can receive a point-in-time copy. For example, if a point-in-time copy function requires that both source volume and target volume reside on the same storage system and a point-in-time-copy operation is initiated at the primary site for a source volume and target volume that satisfy this requirement, techniques are needed to verify that the corresponding source volume and target volume at the secondary site also satisfy this requirement. In order to make this determination at the primary site, information is needed about the storage configuration at the secondary site. Such information may not be readily available at the primary site, or may be difficult to access from the primary site without degrading performance.
In view of the foregoing, what are needed are systems and methods to make remote storage configuration information available at a primary site in order to effectively manage storage functions that are mirrored to a secondary site. Such systems and methods would ideally enable policy-based decisions at a primary site that take into account the storage configuration at a secondary site.